Step Into My World – working with PAUSE and Barnardos in Bradford and supported by GIVE BRADFORD as part of Bradford 2025 celebrations

Verd de gris arts co-creates + delivers social impact project work with local communities across the North of England. Our work advocates for new approaches to engagement and participation, particularly in emotional well-being, confidence and empowerment, intercultural learning. Our targeted work with women and girls in areas of social + economic deprivation leads to new understandings of impact of creative interventions. We are committed to incorporating lived experience into regional + national advocacy campaigns.

For this project we are working with Pause / Barnardos in Bradford with a view to engaging and empowering women who have had repeat removal of their children. Many of these women have been abused as children, live(d) in poverty, are in recovery from addiction / substance abuse. For many of them life has been tough and often brutal. Pause works to support these women through a guided programme of recovery. Verd de gris arts wants to use creativity to explore the women’s place in contemporary Bradford: to hear their thoughts about where they live, how life has impacted on their hopes and dreams, how they are fighting for a better life and renewed sense of optimism about the future.

We believe everyone should have the chance to add to the creative vision of Bradford 2025 – this group is often seen as ‘unreachable’ ‘too hard / tough to engage’ …

But we believe all women can be given the skills for media presentation / public platforms – to call for change and to show other women / wider society, change is possible.

We are super excited to see how this project will develop over the course of 2025!